Material file · Portable cord
Buying SOOW cord from sites and plant floors.
Oil-resistant flexible cord in cut lengths and coiled offcuts, the material that collects in site trailers and plant maintenance cabinets.
Portable cord and premises cable are stored together and reviewed apart. SOOW is 600 V flexible cord with an oil-resistant thermoset jacket and two to five conductors, made to be plugged in, dragged, coiled and used again, which is a different life from anything fixed inside a wall.
It reaches the desk from construction sites and plant floors: temporary power that came down at the end of a job, extension cords retired from a maintenance cabinet, and cut lengths left when a spider box was rewired. Most of it is short, and all of it needs sorting before it is worth describing.
Buy quote request
Tell us what you have
Type, conductor, voltage class and how much is on hand. Photos can follow by text or email. A buyer reviews the lot before anyone talks about money.
Prefer to talk it through? 954-740-1983 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com
01 Distinction
Cord is not cable in a lot
A coil of SOOW and a coil of NM-B can weigh the same and are not the same lot. Cord is stranded, flexible and built for movement, while cable is solid or coarsely stranded and made to stay where it was installed until someone removes it again.
That difference drives the review. Cord is counted and measured by the coil, with the ends inspected for missing plugs and cut conductors, while cable is weighed and reviewed on footage against a factory tag wherever one still exists. The two are never summed together, though cord and welding cable often share a shelf.
02 Sizes
10/4 and 12/3 on site
10/4 is the size that feeds a distribution box or a temporary panel, and 12/3 is the size that feeds almost everything else. Those two account for most of what a site hands over, with 12/2 and 10/3 filling in around them and a heavier run occasionally arriving from a plant.
- 10/4 — temporary power feeds and portable distribution.
- 12/3 — tools, task lighting and small site distribution.
- 12/2 — single-phase leads and maintenance cords.
- 10/3 — equipment cords and heavier single-phase leads.
03 Condition
Oil resistance and its limits
The jacket is oil resistant, which is why cord survives a plant floor where other cable would swell and soften. It is not indestructible. Heat, sharp edges, repeated flexing at one point and a forklift wheel all leave marks that matter more than dirt does.
A jacket gone hard at a bend is a jacket near the end of its working life, and one that has swollen or turned tacky has been in contact with a solvent it was not compounded for. Both are visible on a coil, and both belong in the description rather than the footnotes.
04 Handover
Cut ends, plugs and coils
A cord with a plug on it is a different object from a cord with bare ends, and a buyer wants to know which one is being offered. Plugs and connectors are frequently removed before disposal for reasons of their own, so a lot described as cord may turn out to be entirely bare-ended.
Coil each length and tie it rather than stuffing a bundle into a box. Cord tangles in a way that cable does not, and an hour spent untangling a tote is an hour that nobody on either side of the transaction is being paid for.
Count the pieces and name the two or three sizes that dominate. On this family a count tells a buyer more than a weight does.
FAQ Seller questions
What sellers ask before they send a list
Answers describe how the buying desk works. They are not an offer, a rate or a promise of purchase.
What is the difference between SOOW and cable?
SOOW is flexible portable cord with a thermoset jacket and finely stranded conductors, made to be moved and plugged in. Cable is a fixed wiring product. A lot is reviewed on different facts depending on which of the two it actually is, so the distinction is settled first.
Do cut ends reduce what cord is worth?
They change the description rather than deciding the lot. A bare-ended length can still be re-terminated, but the buyer needs to know how much was cut off, whether the ends are sealed and whether the conductors inside are clean or corroded.
Is oil-soaked cord still bought?
Yes, within reason. The jacket is made for oil, and a stained surface is normal on a plant floor. Cord that has swollen, gone tacky or hardened at a bend is described differently, because the jacket has stopped doing the job it was made for.
Are a few cords from one trailer worth listing?
Small lots are listed and often combined with other material from the same site or district. A dozen cords with the sizes named and the ends described make a clearer lot than a photograph of an open tote with everything tangled together.
Do you buy cord with damaged or missing plugs?
Yes. Plugs are often removed before disposal and their absence is not a defect in the cord itself. A buyer will look at the exposed conductors, the jacket at the cut and the overall length, and describe the lot accordingly.
Buy quote request
Tell us what you have
Type, conductor, voltage class and how much is on hand. Photos can follow by text or email. A buyer reviews the lot before anyone talks about money.
Prefer to talk it through? 954-740-1983 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com